As a young child, my mother took me to see The Nutcracker; when I became a mother, I did the same with my daughter and took her to a Ballet BC production of The Nutcracker, a tradition I was hoping to repeat soon with my granddaughter.

However, I have now learned that Ballet BC is touring in Israel in January, 2019. As global artists, I am sure you are aware of the international movement by many cultural figures to refuse to perform in Israel until it complies with international law. Figures such as Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Lana del Rey, and Brian Eno, who refused to allow the Israeli dance company Batsheva to use one of his musical compositions at a performance in Italy. Continue reading →

Did you know that Air Canada is outsourcing maintenance work for its B787 and B767 jets to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)? And that IAI, a leader in drone production, is wholly owned by the government of Israel? And that Gaza and its civilian population are mercilessly used as a human laboratory for developing and thereby advancing the marketing of such drones?

IAI brags on its website that its “scope has expanded to include technologically sophisticated solutions for battle in the air, at sea or on land” and that it has “contributed significantly” to the “strategic superiority” of the Israeli military.

The Canadian BDS coalition is launching a major campaign to tell Air Canada we are not on board with this blatant complicity with Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people. The Palestinian-led BDS movement recently called for immediate international action towards implementing a comprehensive military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed against apartheid South Africa in the past.

What you can do

Telling Air Canada to immediately end this contract with IAI is one thing you can do right now to contribute. Here’s how you can help:

Please make your union, church, and community or political groups aware of this boycott and encourage them to show solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as workers here in Canada. You can download a fact sheet on the issue from Canada Palestine Association website.

Check all other possible options before finalizing your travel plans and boycott Air Canada whenever possible. Send the message to Air Canada that Israeli government abuses of international law will not be rewarded with your travel dollars!

Join a local BDS group and stay tuned for other campaigns to help further the military embargo on Israel.

The Government of Canada risks becoming complicit with the actions of the Government of Israel in the mistreatment of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Now is the time for Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland to tell the Israeli government to treat the Palestinian prisoners with respect and with basic human rights. In the continued absence of such treatment, Canada must commence an incremental application of sanctions against Israel until such time as prisoners are allowed basic human rights, such as family visits, appropriate medical care, full access to legal counsel, and freedom from imprisonment without charge or trial. As well, Canada must tell Israel to cease their systemic imposition of solitary confinement, humiliation, and torture as well as cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

In making this statement, the Canadian BDS Coalition stands in solidarity with the over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners on the hunger strike, in solidarity with Palestinian prisoner support groups Samidoun and Addameer, and in solidarity with many other peace-seeking organizations world wide.

The Government of Israel has responded to the hunger strike by placing the striking prisoners into solitary confinement, confiscating personal possessions, depriving the prisoners of salt [their only source of nutrition taken in their water], conducting nightly raids of the prisoners’ cells by IDF Security Forces, and threatening forced feedings. This is not a response the Government of Canada should accept and must stand against.

The Canadian BDS Coalition requests everyone who believes political prisoners deserve basic human rights to tell the Government of Canada to sanction Israel until such basic rights are given to their prisoners. Tell Prime Minister Trudeau; tell Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland; and tell your Member of Parliament. Organize your own protest against the Government of Israel along the lines of the #SaltWaterChallenge; tell your family and friends about the extreme abuse of human rights by the Government of Israel; and write to your local newspaper to expose the indignities perpetuated by the Israeli prison system.

In the broader picture, the Canadian BDS Coalition requests each individual to commence their own mission of boycotting Israeli products, managing their investments so as to divest from Israeli companies and those companies which assist Israel in the military oppression of Palestine, and to call for sanctions by federal, provincial, and municipal governments against Israel, and those who support their occupation of Palestine.

It is possible…
It is possible at least sometimes…
It is possible especially now
To ride a horse
Inside a prison cell
And run away…
It is possible for prison walls
To disappear.
For the cell to become a distant land
Without frontiers
– Mahmoud Darwish

May 15, 2017 marks the 69th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist paramilitaries, and subsequently Israeli forces, made 750,000 to one million indigenous Palestinians into refugees to establish a Jewish-majority state in Palestine.

3. If you are a TSO member, subscriber, donor, or volunteer, withhold your support until the TSO agrees to respect the Palestinian boycott call and cancels its concerts in Israel. Be sure to tell the TSO why you’re withdrawing you support.

The Canadian BDS Coalition has the following open letter signed by over 20 Canadian organizations to the directors of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) asking them to reconsider the TSO’s participation in two upcoming concerts in Israel.

FIFA will make a decision on Israeli football teams based in illegal settlements at their upcoming Congress on May 11, 2017. This is our chance to ensure that Palestinian human rights are front and centre on their agenda!

More than one hundred sports and human rights associations representing millions of people across the globe have called on FIFA to demand that the Israeli Football Association immediately exclude teams based in illegal settlements, and for FIFA to suspend the association if it refuses to comply.

As the pressure mounts on FIFA to respect its statutes, the Israeli government is using its embassies to push for removing the issue of settlement clubs from the Congress’ agenda altogether. We can’t let that happen: teams based in illegal settlements and human rights violations have no place in the beautiful game.

Take action now to pressure FIFA to respect its own statutes and Palestinian human rights:

At King’s University College at University of Western Ontario, 76% of the students who cast a vote in a recent referendum supported their student council in lobbying the King’s administration to boycott and divest from companies complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians.

Implementation will be based by King’s University College Student Council (KUSC) on a resolution that brought results from this referendum along with another referendum on fossil fuel divestment to their March 19, 2017 Annual General Meeting.

The approved resolution mandates the student council to lobby King’s administration to boycott and divest from any and all companies and products complicit with Israeli occupation based on principles of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. It also calls on KUCSC to research and write an annual Advocacy Paper on ethical investments and divestments that will include a five-year plan for ethical investing.

On March 30, 2017, the SPHR at University of British Columbia had a ground-breaking victory when a British Columbia Supreme Court judge brought down his ruling and dismissed a case to stop a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) referendum. Continue reading →

BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Barghouti’s wife, Safa, was also interrogated for 16 hours, after the Israeli tax authorities barged into their home and detained them on March 19, 2017.

On March 22, 2017, the BDS National Committee (BNC) issued a statement that indicated “the Israeli government has resorted to fabricating a case related to Omar’s alleged income outside of Israel to tarnish his image and intimidate him.” Beyond this questionable investigation, this detention is happening just weeks before Barghouti is scheduled to receive the Gandhi Peace Award with Ralph Nader in a ceremony at Yale University. Continue reading →

We come together to express our grave concern regarding actions taken by the government of Israel since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, and to call the Canadian government to take a strong stance against the Israeli government’s flagrant disregard of its responsibility as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The February 6, 2017 passing by the Knesset of the Regularization Bill shows utter disdain of the Security Council and for International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws. This legislation allows for retroactive expropriation of private Palestinian land, resulting in the legalization of over 4,000 settler homes, along with the ability to seize privately owned Palestinian land for the creation of new, and/or expansion of, existing illegal settlements. Continue reading →